Anyone have an ideas for a great place to have lunch downtown on Monday? From my cursory Googling, it seems that the more interesting restaurants downtown are either not open for lunch or not open for lunch on Mondays.
Pricey is okay if it is good. Casual is okay also if it is good. I would have been interested in trying Sora Craft Kitchen, but it is not open Mondays for lunch. Jose Andres’ San Laurel is open, but the menu doesn’t look that interesting and it’s on the pricey side – my new pet peeve is non-interesting high priced food.
My other thought is that if our meeting concludes by noon and doesn’t resume for the afternoon that we just head out of downtown since I will be returning to the Westside and the other person will be heading out to the SFV. Is there anywhere compelling for lunch on Mondays, west of downtown, east of the 405? I know there is Pizzeria Mozza and Republique but was hoping for something different.
I think lunch was never easy in L.A. compared to NYC, but it seems even harder after the pandemic.
San Laurel is excellent. I have had several non-boring items on the lunch menu. For example, the montadito with fruit and cheese is way better than it sounds; I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The coca is light and memorable. The mushroom salad is anything but boring; it’s actually kind of edgy as I recall, and I enjoyed the accompanying shrimp. I guess what I’m saying is: San Laurel is the best and most interesting lunch option downtown IMO. My second choice would be Manuela. Third, a tie between Pane and Pizzeria Bianco. A sleeper, make you feel good about LA, pick is Doña Inez, hole in the wall Mexican.
I will say: the avocado montadito is kind of boring, so I would avoid that one. The pastrami salmon montadito is good.
We ended up at San Laurel since it was in walking distance. As I predicted, it was boring and extremely expensive. Nothing was horrible; nothing was great.
We had three prix fixe (the whole table must order) lunches for $48 a person. You get your choice of entree (chicken, fish or octopus) and then the whole table gets the same appetizers to share (oysters, scallop crudo, yellowtail crudo and heirloom tomatoes). I was a little afraid the portions would be dainty – they were – so we also ordered one of the bread appetizers for the table. This was $27 extra and consisted of smoked salmon with cream cheese and smoked trout roe and capers on bread.
The oysters were decent. The crudo was boring. The heirloom tomatoes were not good. The $27 bread thing was okay, not great, but I’m glad we ordered it because otherwise my instincts were right that it wouldn’t be enough food.
The fish entree was okay, kind of bland. The guest who got the octopus entree said he enjoyed it.
The total bill, lunch for three, with tax and tip was $236.34. This included one beer. I shudder to think what the bill would have been if we had ordered wine or cocktails and coffee or tea and perhaps dessert. The tab would have been well over $500.
I understand that inflation has made prices sky rocket everywhere, but I would not return to San Laurel even at a lower price point.
We will be back downtown tomorrow and perhaps can try Pizzeria Bianco for something more delectable.
Downtown on a Monday kind of looked like the zombie apocalypse had struck. It was sad since I remembered a more vibrant time in our city.
We hit Pizzeria Bianco today for a late lunch and I enjoyed it much more than yesterday’s lunch at San Laurel.
Not the best pizza I have ever had (my expectations were sky high since I had been reading about Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix for years), but perfectly nice pizza.
We started with the Little Gem salad which was enough for three - just some lettuce leaves with scalloped radish and with a $2 add on of Parmesan cheese. Not mind blowing, but it was fine and the dressing was tasty.
We had three pizzas. One was the special of the day which was a spicy pizza with fresno chilies. Pleasant, not super spicy. If I had a criticism, something in the sauce was too sweet for me. We also had the Rossa pizza, which is red onion and Parmesan. I don’t remember exactly what the third pizza was, but it was pleasant.
We had a nice bottle of red California wine. I think it was a Grenache (I didn’t order it so I don’t remember exactly). I usually hate California wines, but this one was very food friendly and went well with the food.
I would say the highlight of the meal was the dessert we shared – an olive oil cake topped with a whipped cream and a fresh fruit melange. It sounds boring, but it was delicious – definitely one of the better restaurant desserts I have had lately. Not too sweet and with some interesting spices in the fruit melange. Much to my chagrin, they don’t offer tea. (The waiter said they try to keep it simple). They also don’t have coffee, just espresso.
I found the restaurant a very pleasant place to while away a cold afternoon. I don’t think I would drive from the Westside just to eat there, but I enjoyed it, especially that delicious dessert.